21 November 2009

Another weekend

Something that I've noticed since I started teaching, time is different. In all my other jobs time passed in hours. I would have 2 hours to do this, or 3 hours until that appointment, but time generally moved in hours. In a school time moves in 50 minute chunks. That seems to make the day just fly by. But it also seems to be breaking me of my all or nothing attitude. I used to think that if I didn't have an hour to workout it wasn't worth the time. Now, since in my classes I'm constantly saying "we have 10 minutes left let's do as much as we can," I seem to think that 10 minutes is enough time to workout. Because of this it seems like I'm not wasting as much time as I have in the past. When I thought only an hour workout is worth it and I only had 40 minutes, I would sit in front of the TV or the computer instead of working out. With my new attitude, 40 minutes is a lifetime. I have 40 minutes of free time and I am doing all kinds of things and making all kinds of plans for my next 10 minute break. So, even though the days seem to fly by when they are broken into 55 minute chunks, I'm getting a whole lot more done everyday. And that's a good thing.

This week has been really, really fabulous. I have been getting up and doing strength training in the mornings and walking or running in the evenings. As hard as it is on my body, working out twice a day really, really helps. Again, I only do 30 minutes in the morning and 40 minutes at night. I'm feeling great. I'm feeling muscles I haven't felt in months. My legs and butt are feeling tight. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that when wearing some small heels I felt very unsteady on my feet. That has changed. Yesterday I wore some higher heels and felt very steady on my feet - which I seemed to be on almost all day because my feet hurt last night!!! Anyway, the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks of getting up early so I'm going to continue this.

I have however been feeling very large. Along with my working out I have been kind of watching what I eat. I haven't been watching it really strictly but I've been avoiding the worst culprits. And in spite of my workouts, I've been feeling bloated and fat. Now, one thought is that I've been eating food prepared by a chef all week. Hubby has been working nights and bringing home food which I eat for dinner the next night. I'm thinking that it may be loaded with salt and possibly fat (I have gotten so jaded about restaurant/prepared food. I always assume it's loaded with crap I don't want). So that is possibly the cause of my bloated feeling. I have had my period all week which means I should have felt bloated last week and didn't really. Another possibility is that with my working out the muscle is beginning to build but the fat is still in place. I know, I'm a biologist, muscle takes time to build blah, blah, blah. But, when you strength train you tear the muscles and the body immediately sends repair agents to fix those tears. So it is possible that, with my fat firmly in place still, those repair agents are causing me to feel bloated. What ever the cause, today I'm making all my food and eating clean as well as getting my workouts in. Plus, I have to write a unit plan, grade some papers, finish some writings for the classes I'm taking, figure out why my credit card was declined for a purchase, look for some cheap insurance for the dogs, take Lola to the vet, clean bird cages, do laundry, iron some clothes,..............